


Every Line Between Us Remains Unbroken

by WriteItRight2



Category: TAZ Balance (Fandom), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: AND I WAS SO CONFUSED, Also I think I'm the only person ever to add spoiler tag for any of the first three arcs, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, FOOLS. people will ALWAYS need spoiler tags, FOR EVERYTHING!!!, I KNEW ABOUT BARRY BEFORE I FINISHED HERE THERE BE GERBLINS, I mean i dont know what is expected, Multi, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, SO TAG EVERYTHING, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Spoilers for Episode: e001-006 Here There Be Gerblins Parts 1-6, Spoilers for Episode: e018-027 Petals to the Metal Parts 1-10, Spoilers for Episode: e029-039 The Crystal Kingdom Parts 1-11, Spoilers for Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Taako's first words to Kravitz, and i add those last two so i can say, because that's just too good a line not to use somewhere, but yeah - freeform, everything, oh and does that rating need to be bumped up?, probably because they assumed no one would go looking for any stories before they got that far in, rockport limited. the eleventh hour. the suffering game., that there are NO spoilers for, there is (one) swear word and it's, there's a lot of themes of forgiveness love and hope here, uhhh that's a lot of tags right there, you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 01:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19780369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriteItRight2/pseuds/WriteItRight2
Summary: Some people have a Mark, and a Mark means you have a Bond. Someone may have one, or twenty, or none. Most have none, and this is not surprising. They are written by fate herself, handpicked and carefully woven.Bonds will never live their life without meeting their other. They are meant to know the other.A Mark is a promise, and fate always fulfills her promises.OR:Istus takes a special hand to guide the paths of our favorite adventures.





	Every Line Between Us Remains Unbroken

**Author's Note:**

> Written and edited over the course of four days. About 31 words shorter than advertised, due to the inflating nature of the linebreaks.
> 
> This one is the third addition to my "writing in a weird style," with the focus of this one being far too many run-on sentences, lists, and the word 'and'.

~~~PART-I~~~

Some people have a Mark, and a Mark means you have a Bond. Someone may have one, or twenty, or none. Most have none, and this is not surprising. They are written by fate herself, handpicked and carefully woven.

This is what a Mark is: words, written on your wrist, in the handwriting of someone you haven’t met yet. The words make a greeting, in black or white, and that will denote the end state of the relationship. How you get there is up to you. Black is romantic. White is platonic. (People make this about halves and wholes and parts, about wants and needs. They are wrong. A Bond will always be someone important to you, but the most important person in your life is whoever you make it.)

This is why your Mark would change: You’ve been apart from your Bond, and one or both of you have changed. When you next talk, you are like new people, meeting for the first time. (Sometimes, though rarely, the change is sudden, only realized when you say your next words to them and find them now written on each other.)

The hand of fate is precise, and Bonds will never walk away from their meetings wondering if that was the person _meant_ to say the words on their arms. People often will say things they never thought they would, and are glad for it.

Bonds will never live their life without meeting their other. They are meant to know the other.

A Mark is a promise, and fate always fulfills her promises.

~~~

This is how Barry J. Bluejeans is born: Unexpectedly, into a world he will try to understand for as long as he is in it, (he will carry on trying to understand all the worlds to come after,) and uncertain of so much but that his mother loves him.

He has two Marks: One, in black, in Elvish, that says “Think he’s a nerd?” One, in white, also in elvish, of “For sure.”

He must learn Elvish before he can read them, and does so from books not checked out of the library for years, and leaflets that end up in his small town accidentally, and any other source he can find.

(He learns most things this way. He never wants to stop learning.) (He doesn’t have to.)

He wonders about the two people quite a bit. Who are they? Do they know each other? Are they even technically talking to him?

It’s not until IPRE that he gets his answers. (Amazing. Twins. Not really.)

~~~

These are the colors a Mark can be: White, for platonic, black, for romantic, gray, light or dark, to mean they’re dead, and many colors besides.

Whites are soft whites and blacks are gentle blacks, with pink or purple or red or green or blue or any other color you can imagine mixed in.

(There are other, stranger colors that mean other things. Certain Marks will seem to reflect gold, for reapers and other not-quite-alive servants of the powers that be.  
A color like silver is for stable litches and other undead things that are _more_ in death than in life. Marks become colorless and painful to look at if the person they belong to has become some kind of unstable undead, of which are far more common.)  
(It is not hard for Marks to be impossible colors. That is the least impossible thing about them.)

The shades of the many colors state the current relationship between the people, and there is an order to it, but it is not important and not easy to understand. Few do.

~~~

Taako and Lup are born into an uncaring world and must care for each other. All they are certain of is that they must be there for the other, and that no one else will.

Taako has two Marks. Lup has one.

In elegant black writing that glints gold in the right light, Taako has the words “It’s Kravitz.”

In black for Lup and white for him are the same words, a question asked in Common of “You speak Elvish?”

(They hope it’s a reasonable question in context.) (It’s not.) (They had a feeling that was the case.) (They learn this at the IPRE.)

~~~

Seven different people go to the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration. They come from different places and lives and bases of knowledge, but they all come for the same reason – It’s a good opportunity.

They come from different places and for different opportunities, but they all end up being someone who gets to go to the places beyond their plane.

This is (mostly) how they meet: at one big party, with all the members of the Starblaster crew and many people besides. (It may not have been intended to be a party.) (That didn’t last.)

Taako and Lup drift from place to place, talking in Elvish and commenting on people, often rudely and directly to their face. A large, muscular man talking to Davenport, (maybe they could have found out the names of the people who they’re going to be spending the next two months with, but, well, they have time,) they declare a cry-baby. Davenport himself is a party-pooper.

When they descend on a middle-aged human man with glasses and blue jeans, there’s no thought that goes into Lup asking “Think he’s a nerd?” and Taako responding “For sure.”

There is also no thought put into Barry asking them, in common, “You speak Elvish?”

(They will tease him mercilessly and endlessly for this, as they have done for their entire lives.) (He will later explain that he got as far as recognizing that they said the words written on his wrist in elvish, before getting caught on the ‘elvish’ part of that equation, leading him to base his next words on that.) (They tease him for that too.)

~~~

Lucretia is born with six phrases in white, wrapping around her arms like vines.

(They seem like they’re from people who already know her.) (She hopes to meet them.)

~~~

This is what a Bond is: Someone who knows how you like your coffee, a shoulder to cry on. A friend to laugh with. Someone who won’t let go of you, and you wouldn’t want them to. A Bond is a promise. Someone, somewhere, cares for you.

~~~

Davenport and Merle are Bonded, romantically, and while they are going to be two of seven people on a small ship for two months, that is all Davenport is willing to say. Relationships, he says, are for less professional settings.

(The end of the world in pretty unprofessional, but they wait a little more.)

~~~

Lup and Barry and Taako do not fall right into place, but through the many cycles, Taako finds it’s not that hard to trust Barry.

Lup finds he’s easy to love.

(On Lagato, neither of them notice it then, but when they play their song their marks change. Barry’s now says “Do you want to go talk somewhere for a while?” Lup’s says “I’d love to.” They didn’t necessarily change as people, but their relationship did.)

~~~

All seven birds had marks, for people who would stand as important to them, who they would need. Not all of them had six.

But there were still bonds between the seven of them, each person to the others, lines that were drawn between them all. By a strange twist of fate, however, the marks that would match these bonds were only shown when they changed, their words to each other flashing on their arms and lingering in their minds. These would be words like “I’ll stay” and “I love you” and “I’m proud of you” and “Let’s have a pillow party!”

(It was strange, that much was true.) (But compared to everything else they dealt with, it wasn’t the strangest.)

~~~

After the Judge’s year, the six of them reform, and the words “ i made it ” form on their wrists as Lucretia says them. They say many things to her, and they are both what she needed to hear and what is written on her arms.

The bonds between the seven are made clear, again and again and again.

(Istus will never tell, but the words written are not exactly the first they say to her then. They are the most important.)

~~~

When Magnus is young, he is gleeful to have a mark. The knowledge that someone is out there for him, well, he wants to do the best that he can. This doesn’t go away as he ages.

Then the world ends, and there’s only him and six others, but he still has a mark and someone waiting for him. He goes for a hundred years and wins and loses and loves, but always is waiting and dreading.

(He doesn’t want just one year.)

They come to a world, and this one they are going to stay in, but it doesn’t feel sweet. Then he forgets, and Lucretia brings him to a small town, and by the hand of fate, he meets the most beautiful woman ever.

(He gets six.)

~~~PART-II~~~

Some people are born with thin lines on their wrists, so small they can only be seen under magnification. No one is quite certain what they mean. Twins are more likely to have them.

Only fate herself knows the meaning, and this is it: when two people bonded grow up together, so close that there is no ability for them to note when they first meet, they will have this line. It is made of writing too small to be read, smaller than cells and atoms and electrons. It contains an entire lifetime’s worth of conversations, every word the person’s Bond will say to them.

(When a person with this line changes in step with their other, the marks do not change. If one changes without their other, however, they may suddenly find words written on their wrist that they did not know were there before.)

~~~

Taako doesn’t remember everything in his life, or how he’s gotten to where he is now, but at least he knows that somewhere out there he has Bonds, in multiple. He does wonder what the story behind “You’re dating the Grim Reaper?!”, wrapping up his arm like fire, is though, beyond the obvious.

(There are three marks on his arms, and two are this strange not-gray, and he’s not sure what to do with that. Then one turns white, and he doesn’t have to wonder much longer.)

~~~

Barry doesn’t really remember anything, at all, ever, and he’s following a magic talking coin’s instructions, but he’s somehow not surprised when he says to a nice elf “Your food’s amazing.” and said elf responds with “That’s not exactly surprising.” which is what he has written on his arm, and suddenly he’s found one of his Bonds.

(The magic talking coin doesn’t tell him what to do if he finds a Bond.)

They fall into a pattern of working and building and helping each other that feels so right. (Feels so familiar.)

(He follows instructions from a coin and dies, and wonders how much harder this is going to make his unlife.)

Barry remembers a lot of things, and there’s a lot more he needs to learn. The first thing to learn is whether Taako is okay after one of his bonds dying.

(He’s fine)

(This is because their marks have new words, which means to both of them that they will meet again. Barry’s mark now saying “I’d hope so.” doesn’t tell him that much about said future meeting.)

~~~

The second time Taako meets one of his Bonds, they are in the form of an insubstantial ghost, (they’re a litch. Taako can do research. Doesn’t mean he _cares_.) and the words “I can explain?” are ones he’s been hoping will be followed through on.

For the most part, they are.

There’s apparently things he needs to find, and _someone_ he needs to find, and people in many amounts he’s running from.

Not everything is said then. (Throughout the next ten years, everything that can be said, will.)

He spends some time hiding and some time in a memory-less flesh-body, and if Taako could _please_ be careful around flesh-him, he’s going to send himself to do pretty dangerous things, (“after all, it’s not like you can _die_ , right Barry?”) and honestly, Taako is less surprised by this than he probably should be. (Barry is his Bond, and an all-powerful ghost, and a nerd, and it feels like home. The walls in Taako’s heart soften, and in this world, they won’t harden again.)

~~~

In the years to follow, they will fall into a pattern, one unavoidable and woven in the tapestry fate weaves.

Taako builds a food empire from the ground up, and sometimes he will find the forgetful Barry Bluejeans and explain as much as he can, (as much as he understands,) and then they work and live and a coin calls Barry away, and sometimes he comes back but it’s far more likely the next time Taako sees him he’s a ghost.

(One day, Taako gets an assistant, and Barry is gone for a while, and when he comes back it is to 40 people dying.) (Barry, ghostly and terrifying to people he’s angry at, makes sure the assistant doesn’t stick around after that.)

His name isn’t cleared, and it’s bad, but not the worst, and Taako turns to the adventurer’s life. He continues to meet Barry in stranger and stranger ways, and then he’s meeting two other adventurers through Craig’s List and they take on some minor jobs and then they’re being hired by Gundren Rockseeker. Things move a lot quicker from there.

~~~

(One day, Barry tells Taako who he’s looking for. “She’s my love, my soulmate. My other Bond. If you ever meet another red-robed specter,” at this, his eyes glance to Taako’s other Mark, equally silver as the one for him, and Taako nearly draws a conclusion from that before losing it, “maybe with an umbrella… well, her name’s Lup.”)

~~~

When Taako meets his Bond (again,) he doesn’t say anything. Not a single word, and Barry likewise says none to him, although that really isn’t intentional on his part. Taako’s reasoning is that he doesn’t want to explain the whole Bond-who’s-sometimes-a-ghost-and-sometimes-a-dude-without-any-memories to these two people he’s just met, but he’s very grateful for it when Barry manages to die again.

(In between meting Barry and Barry dying, Taako goes to another cave and finds a skeleton with an umbrella.)

(In the raging fire of a town about to be consumed, he takes a moment to yell out, “Barry, I found her!” He hopes the message is received.) (It is.)

It means he doesn’t have to explain why he’s not choked up about the death of a Bond he ‘just met.’

(And he’s not.) (Really, he’s not.)

This apparently means, however, that Barry’s next words to him will be “ **Are you afraid?** ” which, after the day he’s had, he could do without the drama of, both in concept and when the Director, Magnus, and Merle see it when he’s putting the bracer on – enchanted to show the Mark that may lie underneath.

(He’s not too sure why the lack of any Mark on Lucretia bothers him so much.)

~~~

After a very long day and a very strange race, Taako, Magnus, and Merle pile into Captain Captain Bane’s room and Taako is the least surprised, (though, honestly, not by much,) when Bane collapses and a red-robed figure rises behind him.

The words “ **Are you afraid?** ” echo through the room. No one is afraid.

Barry is needlessly dramatic, (the best kind, Taako is almost impressed,) Taako side-eyes him, breaks away from the other two so he can meet up with Barry in an ally-way, and they set up a meeting in a week so they can talk about, well, everything.

(On the moon, Taako disguises it as a shopping trip.) (It’s very believable, because it’s also a shopping trip.)

When asked why Taako hasn’t seen him in more than two months, Barry says “Busy.” This is not uncommon.

~~~

A week later and after one more conversation from the Director telling him one of his bonds is evil, (Taako doesn’t notice it, not really, but those types of conversations disappear once Lucretia realizes that Taako must have run into Barry. A lot.) Taako goes to the planet surface with the simple reason that he needs a wardrobe refresh. (He needs that too.)

This is what they discuss at their meeting:  
His umbrella, and where he found it;  
(Barry is saddened by the story. Taako tries to comfort him. It only somewhat works.)  
the plan Lucretia has, the apparent vendetta she has against Barry, if Taako should trust her;  
(the plan, Barry says, Taako should go along with. Lucretia has lied to him, yes, but at this point it’s just a race against time and they all need to run together.) (He explains, quietly, that she doesn’t hate him and he doesn’t hate her. But she made a choice, and it was the wrong one.)  
Magnus’ love of ducks;  
(he really loves them,)  
how weird Merle is;  
(he walks around the moon-base with no shirt on. Taako manages to make a litch choke on laughter telling him about the times it's gotten Merle in trouble.)  
what Barry has been doing;  
(hiding in a cave, mostly, he actually will need to get back to doing that soon, and also just barely missing their group.)  
the new kid Lucretia has helping them;  
(“Like, an actual _kid_ Barry, I don’t care if he _is_ the world’s greatest detective –” “Wait, Lucretia recruited Angus? I’ve met him before, say hi to him from me – or, no, that’s probably a bad idea, but still.”)  
what was up with that spooky speech Barry gave;  
(“I panicked.” “Your response to panic is to be needlessly dramatic? That’s pretty chill, my dude.”)  
and then conversation slows until it’s silent.

Barry asks if he can hold the umbrella, and he whispers “I’m going to fix this, Lup.” - and while he doesn’t know it then, those are words Lup has had written on a phantasmal arm for as long as she has had form in her prison, giving her hope.

And then Barry needs to leave, and he’s not too sure when they’ll be able to meet up again but he’s not too worried, and Taako spends the next two hours shopping. It’s the best day he’s had in a long time.

(In this world, he’s able to admit it’s because he got to talk with one of his Bonds.)

~~~

Lucretia’s plans – to erect a barrier around this world, to wipe her friends' minds so they wouldn’t stop her and would be free of guilt – well, they were the only ones she had.

(That didn’t mean they were the best.)

(She knows this, but seeing it so clearly in “Lucretia, what have you done?” wasn’t the best feeling.)

(At least she knew there would be an end to this.)

(In the years to come, she won’t always be sure it was worth it.)

(Her marks for Taako, Magnus and Merle meant they would likely meet her without memories. She’s not sure if this is the best or worst option.)

(Lup and Barry’s wouldn’t change for a long time, and when they do it’s barely less concerning.)

When they all drink the ichor to the second fish, she knows because her Marks change. She doesn’t have much time to linger on that.

~~~PART-III~~~ 

It’s considered a sign of good luck for someone to be born with a Mark. It means your life has been touched by fate, that your path will have purpose.

At the very least, a person knows they will meet their Bond, so it’s generally also a sign of a long life.

~~~

Kravitz is 19 and very confused, because he has just died without knowing the person who is going to tell him “Hey, thug, what’s your name? I’m about to tentacle your dick!” (The words are threatening. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been excited to hear them, to meet the person who would say them.)

Then he becomes a reaper, and he has, in some ways, a second chance. (Which means he’s no longer confused. Mostly. Most defiantly. No more confusion from Kravitz.)

(Later, after many years of doing his work, he gets a chance to talk with Lady Istus. When he asks about his Bond, she says this: “It will be a long, strange journey, but it will be worth it.”)

When his Mark goes gray, (his Bond has died,) he expects to find them in the sea. No such thing happens, even when he asks the Raven Queen for help, (who enquires to Istus whether everything is on track – it is,) and when his Mark returns to black he wonders and worries about who they are and what they could possibly be doing.

He gets his answers a little less than a hundred years after their first death, in the form of three extra bounties practically having fallen into his lap.

And then the elf who is his Bond says the words that would be written on his arm were he not in the form of a crystal golem, and he says his own name, and then they both stand there in silence while the other two members of the party unstick themselves, and then Kravitz leaves. (Unbeknownst to him at the time, Taako is realizing a fair bit of the story behind what is now, as far as he knows, the only one of his Marks he hasn’t met the person behind.)

Then there’s a fight with a bunch of ghosts, and Kravitz isn’t too sure how but everything manages to settle satisfactorily.

(Him and Taako set up a date on the moon. Taako makes a joke about it being the fanciest place Kravitz will ever go. They take things slow.) (Kravitz tries very hard to ignore how the color of Taako’s two other Marks – something reapers are to know the meaning of – means that both of them, impossibly, are stable litches. He thinks very hard about not-that, and also very much does not think about the one stable litch he has met.)

It (years of waiting and worry, a long fight and more worry and a card game) is, as Istus told him, worth it.

~~~

Merle knows he doesn’t have a mark, and that’s not surprising, because so few people do. Neither does Hekuba, and they are married like most other people, not knowing if it will work. For a while they are happy.

It doesn’t last.

Merle leaves, and mostly has regret for the beginning of that part of his life. There’s very little regret for its end.

Merle knows he doesn’t have a mark and he doesn’t want one. He’s a free spirit. He’s not supposed to stay in one place. (But maybe, if he had a mark, they wouldn’t either.)

He doesn’t have a mark, and when he meets the lady of both marks and fate he doesn’t ask why, but he does see her gaze linger for a long moment on where one would be, with a sad look in her eyes.

~~~PART-IV~~~

Above and beyond, a mark is a promise, and one that will always be fulfilled.

Here is how it goes: They remember, and say the lines that have been written on wrists and by people in another universe. Lucretia’s failures are frozen on her arms, but they will not stay forever. It takes time, but they can heal.

Lup, phantasmal and resplendent, returns and asks her brother “You’re dating the Grim Reaper?!” and Taako tells his sister (sister, he has a sister, how could he have forgotten his heart?) “He’s my soulmate!” and there are many, many conversations that will follow that topic.

Merle and Davenport take one moment out of fighting the hunger to be thankful for what they have. They then fight all the harder to make sure they keep it.

(Lup and Barry’s greeting after so long apart is wordless and ancient, and leaves a Mark. Such a thing is rare but not impossible. After all, one does not need to be able to speak or write to have a Mark, merely be able to love. The Marks are in mirroring colors, and they last even as new phrases come and go.)

Taako changes when he remembers, and while it is for the better, it also means he has the words “I- Hold, on, I don’t want it to be cold and weird.” for quite a while. (Kravitz is delighted and Taako saddened that he no longer has tentacle threats written on his wrist.)

Here’s how it ends: They win.

Merle and Davenport are not tied down to any place, but they are bonded to people.

Taako and Lup and Barry and Kravitz learn to live and love and stay in one place.

Magnus builds, and loves, and helps people, and finds something worth living for.

Lucretia does not expect forgiveness, and does not get it quickly, but this is how it comes:

Magnus gives her a duck.

Barry helps her with the Bureau of Benevolence.

Davenport writes a letter, and it is not _just_ to her, but it is the first of more to come.

Merle talks with her. He takes much longer than that to forgive, but he’s always been good at that.

Lup still has conflicts with Lucretia, but it is more because of the pain caused to her brother than anything to do with herself.

Taako takes the longest to forgive. From him, it comes in simply letting her see him, passing by at parties and family gatherings and feasts. Slowly, over years, they talk and he lets her back in.

(It helps that, in this world, he never became so cold, never had to go completely alone. It is because of Istus’ hand, but it aids.)

(Late at night, Lucretia remembers how close she came to wiping even more, and fears.)

~~~

It’s like this: You’re born with a Mark, made of greetings and hope and promises. At some point, you meet someone, and you say the words on their mark and they say the words on yours and that means you’re Bonded.

After that is life and death and undeath and saving the world(s) and love.

(The End)

**Author's Note:**

> So. Tell me what you think? 
> 
> If this gets a good response, I might write more stuff, stories that would get right up into this and show stuff like: 10 times Taako and Kravitz' marks changed. What actually happened when Merle and Davenport met. What Istus is thinking, all the time, ever. About a thousand different things that happened with Taako and Barry during the Not So Lonely Decade.


End file.
